Cazenovia HS Highlighted in National Teacher Spotlight

Cazenovia High School was recently highlighted in a National Teacher Spotlight through Team Empowered, an organization connecting teachers, resoures and experiential activities. 

Cazenovia instructor Christina New was selected for February's Teacher Spotlight and her students are pictured having a "Biz Buck auction," one of the rewards used for student engagement. 

The Teacher Spotlight article through Team Empowered reads as follows: 

This month, we are spotlighting Christina New, an experienced teacher out of Cazenovia, NY. She’s been teaching Business classes since 2005. Over the years, she’s taught Elementary, Middle, and High School, and more than 12 different classes including Sports Marketing, Character Development, Leadership, and Personal Finance. Her most recent endeavor was starting a Work-Based Learning Program at her high school.

Christina loves using Empowered resources in her classes and encourages others to try as many activities as they can. One way she encourages educators to learn more about these resources is to check out the Hub Community Feed. “Use the Hub to stay connected to other amazing educators.” New uses the activities found in the Activity Library, and some of her favorite Empowered activities include Boneyard, Disruptus, Dirt and Worms, Garbology, Branded in Memory, and the Trading Game. Her students respond well to the Empowered dollars and auctions. She regularly uses the bell ringers, brain breaks, team building activities, and incorporates activities that encourage an entrepreneurial mindset in her students.

Student transformation happens daily in Christina’s class. Read about growth mindset coming to life.

“I was told to look out for a few students that I was to have in a class because they have a history of being disruptive in other classes. After a few weeks, I did not really notice these issues in my class. When I asked these students if they liked my class, they said they love it and look forward to it. I’m convinced it’s because of the wide range of Empowered activities that keeps them engaged. They also really look forward to the class auctions!”

Christina takes pride in pushing her students to be innovative and think outside the box. Her entrepreneurship class is now able to create prototypes of their inventions in their STEM lab. One project is creating chocolate molds for the candy bar project, she a incorporates the Empowered Hershey Market Research activity into this project. Last year, Christina started a club called Caz Creates where students can go into the STEM Lab and create things for a spring Syracuse Maker Faire using equipment such as the Silhouette Cameo, 3D printers, crafts and laser cutters. What a cool integration of business skills and innovation!

In Christina’s class, the “real world” isn’t something that students will experience after they leave class – they immerse themselves in the real world by taking field trips around town to interview local business owners, Syracuse University’s Melo Center and Dome, Team Adventure, hear from guest speakers, and complete hands-on projects that are tied to their community, like the Vacant Lot Project. This month, her school hosted their annual Financial Literacy simulation called Mad City along with the Empower Federal Credit Union. The students enter the Gym and are given a credit score, student loans, a job with income, and a family to budget for. They go around their gym to purchase a car, buy a house, shop for groceries, handle child car, possibly have identity theft and see if there is any money left for entertainment. This opportunity allows her students to feel what the real world is like, experiencing scarcity of funds to plan for the life they imagine.

On top of educating her students, Christina will also soon begin a 7-week PD series in her district where she will be introducing Empowered to teachers in K-12! We hope to see them on the Hub soon to learn alongside this community. Christina is excited to

share her passion of Empowered with these educators. Last year, she hosted a training for Business teachers in the Syracuse

When she’s not lesson planning or teaching students, Christina loves spending time with her busy family. As a mother of 3, she’s splitting her time between soccer, lacrosse, football, and wrestling. “I think to be a good teacher, it’s important to have a work-life balance.” Christina’s passion for her family and education are inspiring and we are happy to highlight her this month on the Hub. To learn more about Christina and her class, connect with her here on the Hub.

Region and they all love it so far. Mr. Ken Hammond is also using the Empowered resources in his Business classes as well. “He is

a new hire in my department. It’s nice to have another teacher to share all of the great activities.”